Friday, March 02, 2007

Not Angels but Anglicans

The BBC news site changes its headlines on a fairly frequent basis. Earlier today, under Entertainment, was Church confirms she is pregnant. Scope for all kinds of theological extrapolation along the lines of the church being the bride of Christ ... except that it is of course Charlotte Church who is expecting.

A couple of hours later, also under Entertainment, the headline has changed to Church condemns 'humiliation TV'. Knowing that Charlotte is shortly to host her own chat show I wonder if this is a promise for quality, comfy sofa entertainment - more Michael Parkinson than Graham Norton.

No, this time it really is The Church (of England) warning that TV shows like Big Brother and Little Britain can "exploit the humiliation of human beings for public entertainment". Ah well. CofE's finger still firmly on the pulse, then.

The latter makes for quite entertaining reading. Bath's Reverend Stephen Lynas is evidently a cup-half-full kind of man: "For every Jade Goody there is a Sister Wendy" and "Big Brother is pretty awful but nobody has died yet."

Little Britain is singled out for criticism because the Vicky Pollard character makes fun of the way some teenage girls speak. Well yeah but no but yeah but no but that's because they do, you fool. And prize for Clergyman Most Likely to Live on Another Planet has to go to Reverend Richard Moy: "My only complaint with Channel 4 is that they did not think to have our Archbishop of York on Celebrity Big Brother."

Though Big Brother rules would be one way of managing the Synod. And I would pay to see Jade Goody's art appreciation series.

7 comments:

were you in favour of the CofE's rants or not? i didn't quite work it out.i dunno much about little britain to be honest, but big brother's not one of my favourites, and it'd be quite nice to get rid of it.

I can't help thinking the church should have better things to do than take official stands on elements of popular culture. There are things to be said about Little Britain, Big Brother and others too. They should be left to the judgement of the lower levels, e.g. local churches, youth leaders etc. who know their audience best.

i think you're right, ben, that those matters should be left to the local churches/youth leaders etc.but on the other hand, i do agree with them, and it's better than the church complaining about nothing, isn't it?at the very least, some people may read the headline who otherwise wouldn't have known that we christians aren't fans of big brother and the like.

I agree whole heartedly with your comment relating to Vicky Polard. I feel personally that the church shouldn't be outright condemning these things - instead it should be helping people to learn a better way.